Kelway buys Repton and plans to become £250m goliath

Acquisition hungry reseller Kelway has made its second purchase of the year, buying Middlesex-based Repton Holdings for an undisclosed sum and is now gunning to become a £250m technology supplier within three years. .

In 2006, Kelway sold a 25% stake to Core Capital LLP for £5m and embarked upon an acquisition trail with the VC that has to date included Elcom - bought out of administration in 2007 - and more recently Panacea Services.

"The acquisition of Repton represents a key step in fulfilling our growth ambitions and means we are now of the size and scope to rival any of the UK's major IT providers," said Phil Doye, Kelway chief executive.

The deal means Kelway now has seven regional sales offices and will employ over 350 staff but the buy and build strategy will not end here, the company said and it aims to become a "£250m organisation within three years".

In the year to 31 March 2008, Kelway achieved sales of £90m and retained profits of £2.4m, while Panacea, which it acquired in February, turned over £23m in the same time frame and retained profits of £373,000.

In the 12 months to 30 September 2008, Repton revenues were £39m and it retained profits of £21,000 after paying out a dividend to senior management of £450,000.

The combined businesses are expected to be worth around £180m, Kelway said.

Greg Carlow, Repton CEO - who will continue to manage the firm - said the move would allow it to expand the services and product portfolio available to customers.

"We've worked incredibly hard for the IT accreditations that will enable us to bring new enterprise IT capabilities to the Kelway portfolio," adding that its customers would also be able to draw upon the products and services of its new owner.

The timing of the sale was right for Repton as the market had become much tougher this year said Eddie Pacey, European director of credit services at Bell Microproducts. "This will be a positive move for both," he added.

This week, IndependenceIT unveiled the 4.0 version of Cloud Workspace Suite, which features a number of enhancements; Knowledge Vault launched a partner program for its cloud-based analytics-as-a-service platform; and more.

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